Canadian companies that ship live, frozen and processed lobster to China are on their own when it comes to a new demand that they assume liability for any COVID-19 contamination in order to access their second largest market.
Chinese customers want Canadian shippers to sign a declaration their lobster is free of COVID-19, and assume liability if it’s detected in China.
The stipulation has alarmed shippers like Osborne Burke of Victoria Co-op Fisheries, a Cape Breton company that ships frozen lobster to China.
“Absolutely under no condition would we sign anything,” he said.
Burke, who is also president of the Nova Scotia Seafood Alliance, does not recommend members sign anything either.
Osborne Burke is the president of the Nova Scotia Seafood Alliance. He said a law firm is drafting a document lobster shippers will send to customers in China that asserts the safety of the product without assuming liability. (Mark Crosby/CBC)
“We would have concerns because of the potential to be open for liability under Chinese rules and regulations, [which] is scary at the best of times,” he said.
“We’re not going to ship to particular customers that require something that will place us under Chinese rules and regulations with no control after the product leaves Canada as to who’s handled it, how they’ve handled it and who can potentially contaminate it on the other side of the world.”
Global Affairs Canada not saying whether shippers should sign declaration
On Friday, the province of Nova Scotia asked Global Affairs Canada whether shippers should sign the declaration.
In an email obtained by CBC News that was sent to a provincial official, Callie Stewart of Global Affairs Canada did not provide guidance.
“At the moment, as the request came directly to the Industry from industry, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (who are the Government of Canada lead on this) have left it to the discretion of the Associations/Exporters to decide if they want to sign them or not. We are aware some Associations have already signed them,” she wrote.
The province declined comment on the matter Monday. Spokesperson Tracy Barron referred inquiries to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Most Canadian lobster sent to China comes from Nova Scotia
It’s no surprise Nova Scotia was interested. In 2019, sales of live lobster alone from Canada to China were worth $457 million, with most of that coming from Nova Scotia.
Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil and Fisheries Minister Keith Colwell have travelled to China to promote lobster exports, hailing soaring sales there as a major economic success story.
The Nova Scotia Seafood Alliance has lawyers from the Atlantic Canadian law firm Cox and Palmer drafting a document lobster shippers will send to customers in China that asserts the safety of the product without assuming liability.
“We can’t wait for government. We’re hopeful that will be acceptable … Somewhere, we have to stand take a stand or push back and say this does not make any scientific sense,” said Burke.
No evidence of COVID-19 transmission in food: Canada
In her email to the province, Stewart said the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has already responded to a letter from customs officials in China asking for assurances on exported products.
“The official message is: “There is currently no scientific evidence that food or food packaging is a likely source or route of transmission of the virus,” Stewart wrote.
Burke wants the food inspection agency to provide those assurances in letters to shippers, who can then pass them on to their Chinese customers.
Increased border inspections
The demand for a COVID-19 liability declaration is the second border impediment to emerge in China in June.
Sales were rebounding after the market collapse in February 2020 because of the pandemic.
But after a COVID-19 outbreak this month was traced to a cutting board for Atlantic salmon at a food market in Beijing, Chinese authorities responded by greatly increasing random testing of imported seafood.
A worker wearing a face mask uses his mobile phone while sitting inside a container at the Xinfadi market in Beijing on June 14, 2020. Chinese authorities began testing for COVID-19 in imported food after an outbreak was traced to a cutting board used for salmon in that market. (Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images)
That forced Nova Scotia shippers of live lobster to cancel air cargo shipments rather than risk having live lobster wait for up to 36 hours for test results.
Sources tell CBC News testing of seafood shipments sped up in the days prior to the demand for a liability declaration.
The border measures come amid rising tensions between Canada and China.
KINGSTON, Ont. – Police say a 47-year-old man has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder and one count of attempted murder after two people were left dead and one was seriously injured in a series of alleged assaults in Kingston, Ont.
Police had said that officers were called to an encampment near a safe injection site and Integrated Care Hub around 10:40 a.m. on Thursday after a report of a serious assault.
They allege a man may have been wielding an edged or blunt weapon, possibly both.
Police say the suspect was arrested after officers negotiated with him for several hours.
They say the man was not living at the encampment, but at a residence nearby.
Police say he has been remanded into custody.
The two people who died have been identified as 38-year-old Taylor Wilkinson and 41-year-old John Hood.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Religious persecution
Misguided religious and cultural traditions
Fear of those who challenge the established order
Long ago a horrid thing happened in Europe and in many European Colonies. It was called the Inquisition, an instrument of the Catholic Church and used by the present-day public authorities to quell political and social protest and challenges from those considered rebels(Heretics).
In that day the Church of Rome was seen as the very roots of Western society, that which kept society on a path of righteousness and functioning practice. The political rulers of the day, kings, nobles and lords allied themselves to the church with absolute reason for doing so. The church kept them in power you see. There was a hierarchy prescribed to the present-day society where authority flowed from God to the Pope, Noblemen, Cardinals, and Priests to the public. Church law was often edited for the benefit of the higher classes. Therefore rebels standing against local or regional lords were viewed as heretics who stood against the wishes of the pope, church laws and God himself. This church-established a council of the Inquisition roamed Europe looking for heretics, those different, rebels, witches and those in league with the devil. Any form of social, cultural or political wrongdoing was dealt with with a heavy hand. The rich may have been accused of a wrongdoing, but able to seek their freedom through financial donations. The poor faced the Inquisition with terror and fear since no one was there to represent them. The church-Lord alliance maintained the most severe of punishments.
The Inquisition evolved into the massive witch-hunting movement. Millions of people perished having been accused of witchcraft and being in League with the Devil. There actually existed witch hunters who simply went to a village, watching who was odd, different, threatening to the authorities and voila, a witch was found and declared. Strange methods of finding a witch were developed. One involved sticking a pin into the back side of a person, usually a woman and if she did not cry out in pain, she was possibly a candidate for interrogation. The interrogators usually got a confession leading to that person’s death.
There exists today religious authorities with similar powers to prosecute and punish those deemed different or contrary to established religious or cultural practices. Arrest, torture and disappearances happen daily in places such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, and many African Nations. Fanatical Religious Dogma has cost millions of people their lives, and for what? The Acquisition and use of power. Power encompasses every aspect of control of others whether it be through intellect, threat or violence.
Never should such horrors happen in a civilized world. Just one question needs to be asked. Do we live in a civilized world?
TORONTO – An arbitrator has awarded Ontario’s doctors a nearly 10-per-cent compensation increase for the first year of their new Physician Services Agreement.
The province is in the midst of negotiations with the Ontario Medical Association for the four-year agreement, but an arbitrator was tasked with setting increases for the first year, while the two sides work on the 2025-2028 period.
The OMA had proposed a five-per-cent general increase plus 10.2 per cent as a catch up to account for inflation, while the government proposed three per cent.
Arbitrator William Kaplan concluded that while the OMA’s target was unprecedented, the government’s suggested three per cent was “completely unrealistic.”
He writes that other health-care workers like nurses have received far more for the same time period, and they do not have to pay the overhead costs of running a practice out of their compensation, as doctors do, so he awarded a three-per-cent general increase plus a “catch up” of 6.95 per cent.
The Ministry of Health’s arbitration arguments angered doctors, as the government wrote that recruitment and retention of doctors was “not a major concern” and there was “no concern of a diminished supply of physicians.”
Kaplan wrote that there is a physician shortage.
“Somewhere between 1.35 million and 2.3 million people in the province are not attached to a family doctor,” the arbitration decision said.
“These are real numbers. The Ministry’s own documents – which we ordered disclosed – demonstrate that there is a problem to address.”
Kaplan cites a ministry document that showed the growth rate for family doctors was 1.4 per cent, which was below the growth rate for the population, at 1.6 per cent.
“What was being said, in other words, in the Ministry’s words, in this Ministry document, was that the problem is structural: the number of new family doctors needs to significantly exceed population growth and until and unless it begins to do so, the attachment problem will persist and deteriorate.”
The OMA said in a statement that while it is encouraged by the award, there is still much to be done to address the fact that more than two million Ontarians do not have a family doctor.
“The OMA also remains concerned about access to care, particularly in northern and rural Ontario, and ensuring that specialist consults, surgeries, and diagnostic tests are provided to patients in a timely manner so that people receive the best outcome possible,” the group wrote.
Health Minister Sylvia Jones said in a statement that the agreement also provides for specific funding to be allocated to “targeted investments” to help enhance and connect people to primary care.
“This agreement builds on the $17.5 billion the province currently spends to connect people to family doctors, primary care and other services across the province, 50 per cent more than when we took office in 2018,” she wrote.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
